Ace of Spades

Culture – popular or high – is peppered with gambling-related stories, anecdotes and references over the last couple of hundred years.

From Dostoyevsky’s The Gambler (1867) to country singer Kenny Rogers’ song of the same name, released in 1978 via different incarnations of Casino Royale – the book in 1953 and films in 1967 and 2006, gambling has never been far from our collective conscience.

Oh, and of course all those films set in, or featuring visits to, Las Vegas. But it's to England in 1980 that I turn for my favourite gambling-focused ‘grab’ in modern culture: a song.

Ace of Spades

"Ace of Spades", 2 minutes 48 seconds of ‘speed metal’ magic, released by Motörhead on 20 October 1980 remains the iconic band’s best-known number and a song that never fails to excite the air guitarists among us. 

That it only reached number 15 in the UK singles chart in January 1981 seems neither here nor there now. Though, physical versions of songs sold a helluva lot more, volume-wise, then than they do these days. The song had a later renaissance a few weeks after lead singer Lemmy’s death, reaching number 9 in January 2016. Digital sales, of course.

“The pleasure is to play
Makes no difference what you say
I don't share your greed
The only card I need is the ace of spades
The ace of spades”

Motörhead, then comprising Lemmy (Ian Kilmister) on vocals and bass, Fast Eddie Clarke on guitar and Phil ‘Philthy Animal’ Taylor on drums had, by the late 1970s, carved out a unique place in British rock music. Ostensibly a heavy rock band, Motörhead actually created a unique niche-genre of their own, ‘speed metal’.

"Ace of Spades" opens with a whirlwind, pumping bass line before Lemmy’s gravelly vocal informs us, “If you like to gamble, I tell you, I'm your man”. 

As well as a successful single it was the title track of their 1980 album.

On writing the song Lemmy said he: "used gambling metaphors, mostly cards and dice – when it comes to that sort of thing, I'm more into the one-arm bandits actually, but you can't really sing about spinning fruit, and the wheels coming down".

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Highly-regarded

This brief history and its chart position don’t really give an indicator of just how ingrained “Ace of Spades” is in modern culture. The song has featured in a number of films and popular TV programmes including Severance, Shoot ‘Em Up and House.

Additionally…

• Rolling Stone magazine put it at 3 in their greatest heavy metal songs (and 442 on their best-ever songs list). 
• In 2019 an online poker site named it the favourite poker-themed song after conducting a survey of 1,000 players. 
• NME put it at number 155 in their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. 
• Q Magazine put it at 27 in their list of 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks and said: "This song has an intro which wouldn't be out of place ushering in the end of the world."

Different era

The early 1980s were a very different era in popular music. Records (vinyl, physical) sold in their hundreds of thousands and in some cases, millions. Reaching the top of the charts often took weeks and, considering the volumes shifted, actually meant something – the buyer had to go to a shop (in 'normal' working hours) to purchase said record, not simply click a button on their phone.

More variation then

Aside from the more laborious nature of acquiring music back then it was a different era in terms of what people listened to. Sure, there was, as today, plenty of dull, anodyne pop getting plenty of radio play but there was a very healthy alternative scene – which did actually transfer to commercial success in some cases. It was against this background that Motörhead released a live album, No Sleep Til Hammersmith, in July 1981 which went on to reach no. 1 in the UK album charts.

Lemmy

Lemmy, the band’s lead singer, later became a global icon. His hard rocker, non-PC, Jack Daniel’s-swigging persona stood him in good stead until his death in late 2015.

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Listen to "Ace of Spades"

And of course, if you don’t know the song, it’s probably about time you got acquainted: Motörhead – “Ace Of Spades”

Last words

I’ll leave the last words to Lemmy from "Ace of Spades":

“If you like to gamble
I tell you, I'm your man
You win some, lose some
It's all the same to me”